Davao del Sur execs: Employees spend too much time on Facebook

DIGOS CITY, Philippines—Government officials here have launched a war against Facebook and other social networking services, including chatting, because local government employees were supposedly too engrossed with them to the detriment of public service.

Mayor Joseph Peñas said it has become alarming that employees in various  departments of the city government were spending more of their official hours on social networking and similar activities.

“Most of the employees are playing Farmville and Farmtown with their Facebook accounts during office hours and this affects the way they carry out their jobs,” he said.

Peñas said he discovered the practice, which has been affecting services, from reports submitted to him. He would not say however who made the reports.

Davao del Sur Gov. Douglas Cagas said he also ordered a stop to the rampant practice of social networking among employees even during office hours.

“They are being paid by people’s money and their official time should be spent on servicing the people’s needs,” Cagas said.

He said instead of logging onto their social networking accounts, employees should maximize their time to speed up government transactions.

In Magsaysay, Davao del Sur, a similar move was also started at the municipal local government operations office, according to that office’s Henrito Padillo.

Padillo said the move was in response to a memorandum recently issued by the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

The Department of Education here said it has also started a similar campaign.

Even private companies here are cracking down on social networking habits of their employees on company time.

Godofredo Guya, manager of the Davao del Sur Electric Coop. (Dasureco), said they implemented some drastic moves to prevent employees from accessing social networking sites and chat services during office hours.

“We have banned all social networking sites through our router so that no one could log on and everyone could focus on their office assignments,” Guya said.